Santa Rosa Island Will Slaughter Elk And Deer

We have heard for decades that two things are certain in life – death and taxes. Well, we can easily add a third – government screw-up! Give the United States Government anything and they’ll destroy it but not until they spend billions of our tax dollars first.

Santa Rosa Island in California, part of the Channel Islands National Park, has turned into a political nightmare led by Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. If you want the history of Santa Rosa, read David Strege’s article in the Orange County Register.

Here’s the brief version. The island was owned by the Vail and Vickers family who operated a cattle ranch on the 55,000-acre island. They imported elk and deer and eventually began offering hunts to manage the elk and deer numbers and supplement the ranch’s income.

Then the biggest mistake they made, and one I would highly discourage anyone from doing, is they sold the island to the United States government to be added to the Channel Islands National Park. And so began the destruction of everything good.

Part of the deal allowed the families to continue operating the cattle ranch and hunting operations for 25 years. The environmentalists took over and forced an end to the ranching and part of the settlement required the removal of elk and deer by 2011.

Duncan Hunter, a presidential hopeful, penned a bill that would have kept the elk and deer on the island and provided a place for military members to could go and hunt. That part of the bill was rejected but another part was passed – to keep the elk and deer on the island.

But that’s not the end of it. As is typical with our politicians who are all out of control with spending, earmarks, behind closed door wheeling and dealing at the expense of us overburdened taxpayers, Feinstein and Boxer managed to slip a provision secretly through along with the Appropriations Bill passed on Monday by the House that effectively overturns Hunter’s bill that would keep the elk and deer on the island.

According to J.R. Absher, the Newshound, in his article this week, a spokesman for the company that still runs the island operation says the animals will be slaughtered.

Vail & Vickers Co., the former island owners who continue to manage the hunting operation, contend they were blindsided by the provisionâ€™s inclusion in the budget bill and that logistics prevent them from relocating the wild animals safely and humanely. Instead, they say, in order to comply with the terms of the original settlement, they will likely have to kill the entire elk and deer population.

â€œThatâ€™s a lot of animals to just needlessly kill, but that seems to be the only option left,â€ company spokesman Jim Youngson told the Los Angeles Times. He cited the enormous costs of transporting wildlife, the bureaucratic roadblocks to relocating the animals to public land in others states, and an exceedingly high mortality rate from trapping and moving wildlife.

The environmentalists who want the elk and deer removed say those animals are not native and they are destroying the rest of the islands ecosystem. Operators of the ranch are prepared to provide scientific evidence that this is not the case. One has to wonder what is really behind this maneuvering as animal rights groups have been silent at the prospects that over 1,000 animals will be needlessly slaughtered in order to make way for the public to have more access to the island.

Is this a case of just pure ignorance on the part of Feinstein and Boxer? Are they so stupid they don’t know they probably just signed the death warrants of 1,100 animals? It’s probably a combination of a lot things the main ingredient being politics as usual.

There’s one thing for sure. I bet the Vail and Vickers families regret the day they ever sold the island to the U.S. government. Let this be a lesson to others contemplating giving anything to this out of control and out of touch government.

They are not killing the deer to make the island more accessible. From my understanding they are doing it because deer, like cattle sheep and horses are non native to the extremely delicate and isolated island ecosystem. Their feet pack down the earth making it hard for the endemic plants to grow and they eat everything. As a result the many different species of birds and other native wild life are striped of the undergrowth they need for nesting.
Its too bad we can’t raise the millions it would take to relocate they elk as they did for the cats on San Miguel.

Anonymous

Perhaps “the extremely delicate and isolated island ecosystem” would fair more productively with packed down earth. Just a guess; it would be interesting to know just how this island was claimed “extremely delicate”. Being so gun-shy, shell-shocked, even, by government interventions I suspect the worse and it’s become quite accurate a notion anytime “gummint” is involved.

If anyone still has money to spend, “gummint” would like you to spend it as fast as you can for what they are creating in the first place.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4B7VJFK73ZLLPDCMIZ6WGTKNKU G.B

As I understand it not only have there been cattle operations on this island for many ,many years, but ferrel hogs and others have roamed it and have “packed it down” for a century. I don’t see any problem with thinning the herds but kill them all? I wish there was a group of like minded people who think this is the wrong thing to do that could get to gether and stop this slaughter. I would be willing to actually go to the island and if necessary be arrested to stop this kind of insanity. All of this eco-system crap – and that’s what it is – crap – has got to stop.

Big Country

I’m turning this story in as a project for my American Government class, I’m spreading the word as much as I can to save the heards. I even sent emails and called T.V. stations and left messages. I’m all for the enviornment and all, but some things need to be handled in a more humane manner. Dont matter if you want the deer and elk on the island, we aall want whats best for the heards and thee island, there are other solutionss out there, let’s all find one we all can live with.

Phil

What nobody has mentioned is that Vail & Vickers is still making money on every elk and deer taken off the island, thousands of dollars per animal. And by the end of their lease with the park service, there will be very few animals left since they’ve known for 25 years that the hunting was ending in 2011. There’s no wholesale slaughter of animals, it’s the private company that will be making the money.

My Warrior

Save the elk and deer so some rich guy can kill them, now that is clear headed thinking.

Are you so stupid that you don’t know that hunters kill animals for sport.

Woodsmen

YOU ALL ARE IDIOT!!! Deer and elk help out your ecosystem more than a cow would!!! Who ever thought of this idea is a complete FOOL!!!! If your not comfortable with being called a fool email me at woodsmen2011@hotmail.com fool!!! I have be a hunter my entire life and this is just mind blowing that you would want to eliminate animals because you say they ” pack down” the land!!! YOU ARE AN IDIOT!!! If a hunter disagrees with your methods, somewhere along the lines you’ve got to agree that you are a FOOL!!!

chukarchaser

Has anyone even considered the value of keeping these isolated herds intact to repopulate areas on the mainland that have been decimated by diseases such as chronic wasting disease or brucelosis? .

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Tom Remington

I am a freelance writer and researcher and I publish the Black Bear Blog and other websites associated with Skinny Moose Media and...